I updated Skype recently to version 5.8.0.156 and I have had three straight calls that were dropped after 30 minutes, 24 seconds. This did not happen with previous Skype versions where I could maintain calls for hours.

Microsoft purchased Skype last year for $8.5-billion and the service has been balky on several occasions since then.

Only a month or two after it was published, a detailed report that I wrote was wiped out during a BrightSideOfNews* hard drive crash. That exhaustive report, praised by many throughout the industry as the finest of its kind yet produced, examined the emerging and inevitable ARM versus x86 clash.

It took a little while and cost BSN* a lot of money to recover the data on the hard drive, but that report is now back up and can be read here.

I’m currently working on a followup to that bit of analysis that will include even more hardware than the initial report. I’m still waiting on a vendor or two, so I can’t promise an ETA yet, but one thing I can state is that the new report will be very interesting.

The computing landscape is changing rapidly and the war between x86 and ARM microprocessors is now underway. The competitors have dramatically different strengths and weakness, making for a particularly exciting confrontation.

Most importantly, the results of this war will have profound effects well beyond the CPU market, where several companies will possibly see their fortunes upended. One thing is absolutely certain: computing will never be the same again.

A sure sign that a company is on its way out is when it starts needlessly defeaturing its products to create artificial market segments rather than innovating new features to add value. Windows 7 Starter is a good example of this sad phenomena.

Microsoft originally planned to impose a three application limit to Windows 7 Starter so that no more than three applications could be run at once. Of course, this outrageous, artificial and completely unjustified limitation would have actually cost Microsoft time and money to implement. With the exception of a handful of confused apologists, the three app limitation earned the Redmond software giant widespread derision. Eventually, public scorn caused Microsoft to drop this bone-headed idea before releasing Windows 7 Starter edition last fall.

However, there are other stupid and disingenuous ways Microsoft castrated Windows 7 Starter. Not only is there an artificially imposed 2GB memory limit and the fantabulous new snipping tool is gone, but Microsoft stripped Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) from Win7 Starter. Of course, there are absolutely no technical reasons for killing ICS, a feature that for many years has enabled users to easily set up Windows systems to serve the Internet to home networks.

The Redmond software beast wants you to fork over your hard earned dough through “Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade” to buy back ICS, a particularly vital feature for netbooks that come with integrated broadband cellular modems. Worse still, netbooks are particularly well-suited for home servers since they use very little power and have a built-in UPS. So killing ICS from Win7 Starter was a particularly ungreen move for the spawn of Bill Gates.

Well, it’s very easy to overcome all of the limitations your Microsoft overlord imposes. You’ll need to download Jolicould Linux here. A good application to burn the Jolicloud installation image to disk is ISO Recorder which you can download here. If you don’t have a USB CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, you can create a bootable USB key drive by following the instructions here. You can even install Jolicloud from within Windows if you download Jolicloud Express from here. Once you’ve created your boot disk/USB key, boot from it. You can install Jolicloud so that you can chose between Win7 Starter and Jolicloud at boot time, or you can completely expunge Win7 and replace it with Jolicloud.

Boot into Jolicloud and connect your netbook to the Internet. An added benefit Jolicould brings are preinstalled broadband cellular modem drivers along with proper settings for many carriers. When Jolicloud detects a new broadband cellular modem, the Network Manager menu, activated by clicking on the appropriate Gnome Panel icon in the top of the screen, will list a new broadband device. Clicking on that menu entry will bring up a simple wizard so that you can select your carrier and ensure that the correct number is dialed. It literally takes about ten seconds to to set up a new cellular modem connection in Jolicloud Linux.

To share your Internet connection, whether cellular or otherwise, right-click on the same Network Manager icon and select “Edit Connections…”. Click the “Add” button no either the Wired or Wireless tab, depending on which way you plan to share your Internet connection. Give the new connection a descriptive name like “Shared Internet Connection”. On the IPv4 tab, select “Shared to other computers” as the Method. Click “Apply”.

Reboot your netbook. After you sign in, activate the Internet connection in the Network Manager menu if it is not automatically activated. It might also be necessary to manually activate your “Shared Internet Connection” by clicking on the corresponding Network Manager menu entry.

You should now be actively sharing your Internet connection with your home network.

It’s humorous to note that Microsoft did a predictably sloppy job disabling ICS in Windows 7 Starter. In fact, it is still available, but only if you want to share your active Internet connection over an ad-hoc wireless network. In other words, other computers will have to connect to your netbook wirelessly to see the Internet. To set up this type of Internet connection sharing configuration, simply type “adhoc” in the Windows 7 Start menu search box. This will filter down to wizard that enables you to set up an ad hoc ICS network.

Software behemoth Microsoft recently published a paper proposing the tattooing of certain medical patients. “We propose that access keys be written into patients’ skin using ultraviolet-ink micropigmentation (invisible tattoos),” the abstract reads.

The piece, authored by Microsoft’s Stuart Schechter, maintains that passwords providing wireless access to implanted medical devices like heart pacemakers shouldn’t be entrusted to patents who are unreliable and might be unconscious when device access is needed.

We propose that a user-selected human-readable key be encoded directly onto patients using ultraviolet-ink micropigmentation, adjacent to the point of implantation. To increase reliability the encoding could be augmented
to include an error correcting code and/or be replicated in full on the base of the patient’s leftmost foot—at the
arch. All devices used to communicate with the IMD would be equipped with a small, reliable, and inexpensive
ultraviolet light emitting diode (UV LED) and an input mechanism for key entry (a keypad or touch-screen).
A single key would be sufficient for multiple devices and could be re-used when devices are replaced.

The key encodings could take the form of user chosen character strings (optimizing for user choice), random
character strings (optimizing for minimal size), or strings of hieroglyphic-like images chosen from a subset
deemed acceptable to the user. The first option gives the greatest control to reluctant patients, whereas latter
two options guarantee a minimum level of key entropy and can easily be augmented with error correcting codes.
Each patient would be allowed to request new random encodings until finding one he or she deemed acceptable.

In the holocaust, identification tattoos reminded prisoners [they] no longer controlled their own bodies. Giving the patient a choice of whether or not to use micropigmentation, the type of encoding to use, and some control over the process that generates the encoding should help to address these concerns.

The economy will continue to worsen throughout 2009. The U.S. will officially be in a depression by years end.

After a few more months of deflation, the value of the dollar will become unstable and retract.

Talk of dumping the dollar as the global reserve currency will accelerate while a North American currency dubbed the “Amero” will be proposed.

A “major event” will occur soon after Obama is inaugurated.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average will slide below 7,000.

Housing prices will continue their decline.

An event will occur in America that will be used to place a great deal of pressure on the Second Amendment.

A false flag event officially and falsely attributed to foreign terrorists will be carried out inside the United States.

A false flag event will be exposed, but mainstream media will try to ignore it.

There will be major riots in the United States.

Iran will be attacked.

India and Pakistan will be provoked to the brink of war by various intelligence operations.

A major war will begin that may eventually lead to a much broader conflict.

The price of gasoline will remain low until the value of the U.S. dollar begins to slide.

Federal troops will be deployed within the U.S. for the purpose of law enforcement, violating the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

Talk of censoring the Internet inside the United States against broadly defined hate speech will erupt and build throughout the remainder of 2009.

A major political activist will be jailed inside the United States.

A major political activist will be slain inside the United States.

A major U.S. politician will be assassinated.

A well known entertainer will be jailed for political reasons provoking outrage.

A major disease outbreak will occur.

Globalist bankers and industrialists will be attacked in the U.S. as their role in the collapse of the the economy will become more widely recognized.

The National ID Card will move to the forefront of discussion within the United States.

As earth’s climate continues to cool as predictied by heliocentric climate models and with more and more experts publicly expressing skepticism over manmade, CO2 driven Global Warming, popular support for carbon reduction initiatives wanes dramatically, particularly in the U.S.. Despite flagging support, the Obama Administration, with the support of a friendly Congress, successfully rushes through legislation to heavily tax the carbon emissions of coal fired power plants, resulting in higher electricity costs for most Americans.

The college football BCS system will be abandoned in favor of a playoff system due to antitrust court case developments.

All major CPU and/or GPU vendors will survive 2009, but layoffs will continue. At least one vendor will be in imminent danger of failure by the start of 2010.

So-called “touch” interfaces will become popular in desktop and mobile applications.

The line between “Netbooks” and lowcost thin-and-light notebooks will be blurred. This combined segment will experience explosive growth.

ARM vendors’ attempts to capture a slice of the netbook market will fail due to performance shortcomings and the depressed economy.

Digg and reddit, two sites that once held great promise for furthering the cause of freedom and serving as springboards for revolution, decline into banal outposts of kitten photos, porn, pop culture and lunatic rants on wedge issues.

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At a time when anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is becoming broadly recognized as a politically driven, pseudo-scientific power-grab, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates recently “unvielded his vision” of global catastrophe unless net man-made carbon emissions are reduced to zero. The video of his peculiar, ill-timed, February TED2010 talk is here. Gates also delivered a very odd […]

Two days ago a poster on the popular Godlike Productions message board predicted large quakes might occur on February 27. At 3:45 AM today, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, the fifth or sixth strongest quake of the last 100 years. The poster, “ZOSIME,” based his prediction on the impact of a coronal mass ejection (CME) […]

Dr. Mike “Dr. Future” Bennett and Mike “Tom Bionic” Tatar, Jr., put on a fantastic radio program called Future Quake. I had the privilege of being interviewed by them recently and that recording will be broken up into four parts and broadcast next week on WENO, AM 760 in Nashville, TN. Those interviews are now available […]

Dr. Stan Monteih interviewed me for two hours on his Radio Liberty program last night. You can now listen to MP3 archives of the broadcast. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Dr. Monteith has scheduled to interview me again tonight at 11PM Central / 9PM Pacific. You can listen to that interview live […]

Apple introduced its greatly anticipated tablet computer, the iPad, yesterday. It was impossible for the product to meet the unbelievable hype surrounding the computer’s debut, but even taking this into account, the reaction to the device, which will not ship for months, has been mostly negative. Critics point out the iPad’s lack of multitasking, the low […]

You can download the MP3 archive of my Radio Liberty interview here: http://radiolibertyarchives.gsradio.net:8080/012510d.mp3 Dr. Monteith also has scheduled several additional interviews with me for the upcoming weeks.

Over the last few weeks, I made several posts to the message board of the TV program Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. I discuss the Georgia Guidestones here. I post that we have nothing out of the ordinary to fear from nature on 12 / 21 / 2012 here. Responding to many questions on the […]

NOTE: A better, updated account of the linkage between the Georgia Guidestones and the Burj Khalifa can be found here. This brief post is a followup to my recent Georgia Guidestones article which can be read here: http://www.vanshardware.com/2009/12/decoding-georgia-guidestone.html The Georgia Guidestones monument is composed of three primary components: the center “Gnomen” stone, the capstone and […]

A recent nighttime photograph of the Georgia Guidestones Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about? – Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Program It’s a beautiful, warm, November Saturday in Georgia and the defaced granite monument looms above Mart Clamp while […]

Although I use Ubuntu more and more, I still have to spend a large portion of my day working in Windows, primarily because of my job. Gaming and navigation software are other reasons why I boot up Windows. Whenever I load a box with Windows, I usually install the following programs. OpenOffice: OpenOffice 3 has […]

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A recently released documentary reveals that R.C. Christian, a pseudonym for the man who provided the designs and funding for the controversial Georgia Guidestones monument, was Herbert Hinie Kersten, a doctor from Fort Dodge, Iowa. Kersten appears to have expressed support for David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in a letter written to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. William Sayles Doan, an author and Fort Dodge historian, claims on camera that Kersten was an outspoken racist who voiced plans to create a measurement to definitively prove that whites – and in particular Northern Europeans – were the world’s superior race.

A YouTube video posted yesterday, November 8, persuasively explains the origin of a granite cube recently added to the Georgia Guidestones. The cube was placed inside a five-year-old notch cut into the upper-right corner of the English Language Guidestone. Michael Massanelli claims responsibility for the cube and he states that the cube was intended to […]

Update 2: This article has been followed by a flurry of bizarre hacks, spoofed emails and spoofed message comments. I believe the article and the activity surrounding it — much of which I have not discussed publicly — is being directed by a very determined individual who possesses at least moderate levels of hacking skills. […]

In 2009 when my girls and I originally visited the Georgia Guidestones for what turned out to be my initial article on the subject, I discovered a large notch cut out of the top-right corner of the English language Guidestone. Given the considerable amount of vandalism committed over the year prior to our visit, I […]

I continue to receive requests for OpenSourceMark source code. You can download the source code here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_M9uysbCa–dEJoM01kZmgwNlk&usp=sharing I have also made public a sophisticated benchmark harness that my company developed that can be used to create application level benchmarks like SysMark. You can access the source code here: https://github.com/van-smith/OPBM I am also making public the […]

The Georgia Guidestones have been a source of debate for decades. Our research links the controversial granite monument with the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, confirming the suspicions of some that the Stonehenge-like structure declares the planning of a global government and the culling of the world’s human population to a mere 500,000,000. While […]

Internet shopping giant Amazon is currently selling the Seiki Digital 39-Inch 4K Ultra HD 120Hz LED TV for only $519.99 with free two day shipping if you are an Amazon Prime member. Additionally, the item qualifies for 6-month interest free financing. If you can bump up your order to over $600 with qualifying items (which […]

A pastebin post self-attributed to the secretive and nebulous activist group “Anonymous” claims that a 9/11-style false flag attack on the Los Angeles Citibank building may occur tomorrow, Friday, November 15, 2013. The post is quoted in its entirety below: Potential False Flag———————————-Anonymous Shocking Current Events Greetings citizens of the world, we are Anonymous. We […]

Author Jill Neimark has written an article for Discover magazine about the Georgia Guidestones, a controversial and mysterious granite monument located in a northeast Georgia pasture. In her article, she provides quotes from me. You can read her article here. You can read more about my research here, here and here.